The Spotle AI-thon 2020 focused on AI to spot mental health issues using social media data post COVID

 25th November 2020  

 Over 7000 teams from India, Singapore and Malaysia collaborated as part of the Spotle AI-thon 2020.

The 2020 Spotle AI-thon's aim was to apply artificial intelligence in healthtech and mental health issues and then build a positive dialogue around mental health by showcasing student led innovations for solving mental health challenges.

 The hackathon was  launched in association with NASSCOM community, SPJIMR, Chennai Mathematical Institute, PRMoment, L&T Infotech and other partners.

Over two months of intense competition students worked on problem statements including building an automatic mood detector by analysing facial expressions that can potentially trigger wellness alerts on social media. The top teams also did an exploratory analysis of the mental health state of India during the pandemic, using millions of tweets and social media data.

By connecting AI and mental health in a student competition, Spotle.ai also encouraged young students to actively discuss, analyse and address mental health problems.

Chennai Mathematical Institute, NIT Jalandhar and IIT Roorkee took the top spots beating over 7000 teams from 500+ campuses in Spotle AI-thon 2020 – the global AI challenge. Team Temp, consisting of Swarnadeep Bhar, Debangshu Bhattacharya, Swaraj Bose emerged as champions.

Artificial Intelligence represents a potentially huge opportunity in India, with the AI market being valued at $6.4 Bn as of July – August 2020. According to a research study published by Accenture, AI could add US$957 billion to the Indian economy by 2035, lifting the country’s income by 15 percent in 2035. 

For Rimjhim Ray, co-founder and Chief, product and marketing, Spotle.ai, Spotle AI-thon delivered more than an interesting contest for students, it made them work on AI and tech for good. “2020 has shown us that soft skills like empathy, communication, leadership, a larger consciousness will be very important in navigating a volatile, uncertain world. By backing online events and contests on social impact issues for students, we want to put our weight behind building a more socially conscious, conscientious workforce.”

 Jyotirmay Kanthal, CEO and co-founder, Spotke.ai said, “There’s no doubt, mental health is one of the areas that is most hit during the pandemic. And we have to come out of this stage of mental depression. Technology has to achieve greater good, solve human impact problems.”